Despite all of the research and thought, sometimes people go into the wrong job or even career. We cannot know what it will be like until we do it.
However, many people also don’t give themselves or the job long enough to know what it is really like. Our general advice is see a whole cycle, probably twelve months. It may be a training programme allows or requires movement around an organisation to see different departments or functions. This does give a great chance to learn, experience and decide on the immediate future.
But sometimes the original decision turns out not to be the right one for you. You have tried hard, given it enough time and made every effort but it isn’t working out as you hoped. It is a brave decision to try something else, but this whole site is predicated on intelligent and informed decision making. If you need to make a move, know to where you want to go and why. Making a change can be a positive, lurching aimlessly from one job to another may adversely impact on the medium to long-term future.
Dealing with knock-backs is fundamental, even in a job which is great. Nobody has a seamless and problem free career. Having issues isn’t the issue, how you deal with it is:
- Learn from every situation, even those in which you see yourself as blameless.
- Don’t become cynical. Nothing disappoints a manager than seeing a positive and vibrant person turning into a cynic, looking at life as if simultaneously sucking a lemon. Employers want people with a thirst for success, for helping colleagues and for achievement. There are people who think they are funny by being cryptic and sceptical, and maybe they do raise a smile, but they are also deciding their fate in regard to that company or promotion or being given interesting challenges
